Thursday, September 12, 2013

Blog #1 Syria will give up control of chemical weapons

Brittany Brooks

9/12/13

2:04 pm

Syria’s President, Bashar al-Assad,
supposedly said that Syria will cede control of their chemical weapons to the
international community. The statement seemed to be the Presidents first
acknowledgement of the countries chemical weapons. He made a point to say that
this decision had not been prompted by the US military threats but instead by
the Russian diplomatic efforts. However, this interview has yet to air on
television. Assad also said that Syria would submit documents to the United
Nations for an agreement governing the handover of its chemical arsenal. The
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has said that the “initiative will not
succeed unless Washington abandons plans for potential air strikes to punish
Assad for a poison gas attack on 21 August which the US president, Barack
Obama, blames on Syrian government force.” Syria does claim to not be behind
the attack, but also has agreed to Moscow’s proposal to give up their chemical
weapons stock.

In meetings that are planned to be
held at the end of this week, Kerry is expected to ask Moscow to come up with a
credible plan to quarantine and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons. Kerry will be
taking a US chemical weapons expert along with him to expand the Russian ideas
for safely destroying the weapons.

Putin also commented for an article
in the New York Times welcoming Obama's consideration for the Russian-backed
plan for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons and said that his relationship
with the president was marked by “growing trust”. However, he did warn that “It
is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign
countries has become a commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s
long-term interest? I doubt it.” The White house does feel though that Russia
is going to be trustworthy at this point.

The big question now arises, will Russia be
trustworthy enough to hold up on their side or the deal, and will Syria keep
their promise to turn over their chemical weapons? At this point it is a risk
that the US must be willing to take unless wanting to start another war. The
United States still seems to stand much divided on whether or not we, as a
country, should even be involved in another countries war. The citizens of the
United States are not the only people who feel that way. The Russian president publicly stated. “It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign
countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s
long-term interest? I doubt it”. It raises the concern that people all over the
world are starting to believe the United States is being intrusive. The
concerns about Syria and what is taking place needed to be addressed but was it
really the United Sates job to handle it ourselves. As long as Russia can truly
convince Syria to turn over chemical weapons they have then proven to find a
solution to this issue in a non-violent and un-harmful way.